Welcoming or resisting? It’s all up to you!
“The only constant in life is change” – This saying is attributed to the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus, who lived around 500 years before Christi (c. 535 – c. 475 BC). The same philosopher is also known for the saying “No man ever steps in the same river twice” as well as “Panta rhei”, everything flows.
The world around us is moving every day, every hour, every minute and every second. No single day is the same. Change is an inevitable part of our lives. That is not a totally new idea, nor connected only to our generation, though we might have the feeling, that today life is changing faster than ever before.
The question is how are we reacting to change?
How are we reacting to new circumstances? To stuff in live? Are we seeing change as a threat, endangering the status quo, the cozy place we live in, or are we embracing the change and looking for possibilities and opportunities, the positive aspects of change for our lives and careers?
Every day we are encountering new situations in our private and professional lives and we need to deal with them. We either give in or we take control. No one can do that for us. We are the only ones responsible for the way we see things and how we feel about them.
Fear is a normal reaction to everything unknown. This is what our pre-historic ancestors learned as a survival tactic, then it made them be careful approaching every new situation. Now, we live in a much more educated world. We can quickly assess whether it is a life and death situation or just an event, we need to handle.
Usually it is not the change itself we are fearing. It is more the need of going out of our comfort zone. We made ourselves comfortable, in a relationship, at home, at work, we know our colleagues, the structures, informal and formal power schemes… and now we need to adapt to a new situation, we need to deal with it, take even action…
When you view change as an opportunity, all of a sudden life becomes an adventure.
We tend to interpret things as we see them and categorize quickly: good or bad, right or wrong, like or dislike…swiping in our head left or right, putting everything into boxes, not spending the time to evaluate and look for the meaning behind, the possibilities new situations can bring us. Despite we are in a real – our life or health threatening – danger, we should take the time to assess situations before judging them.
When we start seeing any change more as an opportunity – neutral and without judgement – this is the basis for development, for grow and a way to discover new aspects live can offer.
Seeing change as something exiting.
There are so many first times, live changing experiences, we see not as scary events as they happen, but as exiting ones, associating them positively. Like travelling to a new place, we never been to…Or when we are taking up a new job or a new project… Or before our first day at school or university…
Be a leader of your life instead of being a victim of the circumstances.
How would it be, if we could move away from fearing the change to welcoming it? I believe it is our choice how we approach things in live. Yes, there are tough situation, not easy to deal with. It is not about that. It is not to say life is easy.
It is about taking responsibility of our life and our feelings. Yes, when something new comes up, I am as well sometimes scared… and then I start thinking what is the worst thing that can happen to me and what are the positive outcomes the change may have. I can then approach things differently. Yes, it is sometimes scary not having all the answers, but we will never have. If we think at the scale of a universe, there are still many uncertainties. And that is the beautiful part of live. Wouldn’t it be boring if we already would have all the answers?
Change is an opportunity to do something amazing.
Change itself brings opportunities, when we allow ourselves to see them. When we look with curiosity, for the possibilities instead of constraints. When we look for how the change impacts our lives in a positive manner, not how it is threatening our status quo.
My Grandma always told me, that when a door closes, plenty of other ones will open and you only need to go through. I am not a spiritual person, though I still believe that when something ends, it makes place for something new and often better.